While Bandai Namco hasn't disclosed its full lineup for this year's JAMMA Amusement Machine Show yet, the makers of Taiko no Tatsujin are being a bit more forthcoming. In a [a href=http://taikoblog.namco-ch.net/blog/2008/09/post_55.html]post at the official Taiko no Tatsujin developer's blog[/a], a Mr. Takahashi from the game's development team revealed that Taiko no Tatsujin 12 will be at the show in a playable form.

While the presence of the number "12" in the title may suggest that there isn't too much to get excited about, Takahashi did point out a major change for this latest entry in the series. It actually involves that number. Past Taiko no Tatsujin games have used English readings for the numbers. So, the last game in the series was officially read, in Japanese, as "Taiko no Tatsujin Eleven." For this latest entry, team Taiko is going full Japanese with the reading. The proper Japanese reading of the game's name is "Taiko no Tatsujin Juu-ni," "juu-ni" being how one says "12" in Japanese.

As Takahashi explained, this move was made over concerns that "Twelve" would be hard to write and pronounce in Japanese katakana alphabetic characters. In the blog posts, he lists no less than three katakana writings that would all sound just like "Twelve."

Takahashi promised a partial song list to be delivered in next week's blog post, so interested parties should check the blog.

The 46th Amusement Machine Show will be held from September 18 through the 20th at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba. The last day is open to the general public.